Nepal is a small land-locked nation nestled in the Himalayas between China and India and is home to our planet's highest point, Mount Everest. Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in South Asia, with fifty-four percent of the population living on less than US$1.25 per day. The recent decade long civil conflict, combined with frequent natural disasters - from severe drought to flooding, and two years of inflated food prices have all contributed to Nepal's current state of food insecurity.

WFP's operations in Nepal supported 2.2 million people in 2010 and focused on preventing hunger and meeting nutritional needs, empowering local communities to build assets to improve food security, and supporting local government and other partners to develop an effective food security and nutrition strategy.

WFP provides 182,000 school meals to primary school students living in Nepal and in a partnership with Open Learning Exchange Nepal laptops and Nepali-language teaching and learning materials are being provided to the primary schools, encouraging regular attendance and emphasizing quality education. WFP also has an active Girls' Incentive Programme that provides 54,000 school girls with a monthly take-home ration of cooking oil. In the areas where this programme is implemented there have been increases in girls' attendance by as much as 27 percent!

Other programmes, like the Food and Cash for Assets projects, focus on community development projects to improve infrastructure, build irrigation systems, and increase access to food through fishery ponds and the cultivation of cash crops. Through these projects WFP is able to meet the immediate short term need for food while ensuring access to food and resources in the long term.